Budapest Travel Guide

The City sprawls far and wide across the mighty Danube and offers some of the most amazing photo opportunities

Euro Tripping Travel

Hungarian beer and all the hearty food you can eat…. All for the right price!

Euro Tripping Travel

Culture of Budapest

The city of Budapest is alive with energy and passion. The cities has thrown off the shackles of communist suppression and what emerged is a city that is ever growing and free to show the world what it’s all about. The people of Budapest are a wonderful and warm natured citizens and always open to new ideas and follow the philosophy of enjoying every minute of life.

The city itself is sprawled across the Danube river and is actually the coming together of 3 cities. Obuda, Pest and Buda, with Obuda and Buda on one side of the river and Pest on the other side. So the solution to the new name of the city was simple. As they viewed the city from the citadel with Buda on the left and Pest on the right, They decided to put the names together as they viewed it in real life and it became the name Buda-Pest =Budapest.

Getting Around Budapest

Getting around Budapest isn’t as hard as you think. With Europe’s second metro system ever invented you’ll find it easy! You might be interested to know that the metro in Budapest started being built in 1894 and is second only to the London Underground system.
Hosting 4 lines: M1, M2, M3 and M4 it will take you across the city very easily, with its central meeting hub of the city and the lines being in Deak Square. With single tickets starting at 450 HUF, Its roughly 1.50 euro for a ride. One of the cheapest in Europe! Tickets are easy to buy from the machines in the stations or the ticket offices, buy remember you can also buy 24hr tickets, 72hr tickets and booklets of 10 single trips if you wanted.

History of Budapest

Hungary has a very rich history indeed. From the seven Magyar tribes in the 9th century founding the country where Budapest stands today, to its fights and battles with the Turkish, followed by its long Austrian rule and influence, to its position in both world wars and its communist governments to follow, there is something very special about Hungary’s and Budapest’s history. Everywhere you look from its architecture, structures and museums, you are reminded of what the city has seen in her colourful past.

Currency

The part that’s fascinating about the Hungarian currency and why it rates a mention in the culture page is due to its very interesting past. The currency that Hungary used before the war, known as the Pengo. In 1946, during the communist regime, Hungary underwent a massive recession. So bad in fact that the cost of items was literally doubling every 15 hrs, due to the collapse of the economy. One solution at the time was to create the 1 Milliard or the 100 Million Billion Pengo. Yes.. You heard right! That is 1 with 00,000,000,000,000,000,000 after it! So many numbers that they wouldn’t fit on the bill. Finally the money was scrapped and a new currency created. The Hungarian Forint.
Although part of the EU Hungary remains on its original currency from before the entered. The Hungarian currency is quite special with its pinks and blue colours to the interesting faces that adorn the notes them-selves. It’s called the Hungarian Forint or HUF, which is how you will often see it displayed on price tags. It can be quite daunting if you are not used to foreign currency due to its high values on the notes. At the time of this printing the exchange rate to the Euro was 1= 308 HUF.
So you can see that if you were to buy an 8 euro cocktail it may be priced on the menu at 2,465 HUF. It often takes a little practice to get your mind around new currency, but don’t worry! Once you pick up the knack for one, you know it for all others.
The best way is to make it simple and divide the total amount by the current rate of exchange for your currency. In this example you could take 2,456 and divide it by 308 using your phone. Or a handy tip is to simply take the exchange rate (308 )and round it up or down to make it easy and multiply until you reach the number you’re after, it won’t be exact, but it will give you your rough amount.( For example, 300, 600, 900, 1200……. Until you reach your magic amount)
Or make it even easier and remove the last two digits from the exchange rate and the cost amount and do your division then. For example:
2,465 at rate of 308 (remove the last 2 digits from each)
= 24 Divided by 3
= 8

Food & Drink

Food and Drink is very important to the Hungarians. It not only nurtures the body, but keeps you alive in the bitter cold winters that are known to sweep through the Eastern states of the EU.
You can find food and drink from all walks of life in Budapest, from Mongolian BBQ, Italian Pasta,Mc Donalds, KFC, to even Hard Rock Café American Dining, but Budapest and Hungary is famous for its food that heavily laden in calories and fat. Perfect to keep you full, but also needed during those cold winters to build up calories to help fight the cold.
Pork, Bread, Hungarian style pasta, Potatoes, heavy sauces, goulashes and Beer are very popular on the menus in town. I doubt you will find a traditional meal that doesn’t come with a lot of meat and tons of bread and potatoes. The meals served in these restaurants is also not what you would call calorie controlled portions. They are often HUGE, so make sure you bring your hunger and are up for an amazingly great tasting challenge every time you go out for a meal in Budapest.
Beer is the other big favourite in Budapest, lots of local brews available from the restaurants to even in the super market fridges. In many cases beer is cheaper than bottled water and if you ask a Hungarian male who loves his beer, he may in fact tell you he drinks it instead of water 😉
Just remember to shout out ‘Egeshegedre’ before you have a swig. It means cheers in Hungarian

Thermal Baths

Budapest is known at ‘the city of spas’ and has so since the mid 30’s. This is because the city sits on one of the world’s largest hot springs of mineral water. People come from all over the world to bathe in the minerals which are believed by many to have healing powers on the body.
The baths can be found either inside or outside and range from warm pools, hot pools, steam rooms and ice plunge baths to give a full spectrum of experience, depending on where you go.
There are more than 15 thermal baths in Budapest if you are counting only the public ones, with the most famous being the Gellert Hill baths, which are in fact located on the Buda side of the city on the Gellert Hill and the Szechenyi Baths, located near Hero’s Square near the city’s parklands.
The average cost for a couple hours in one of the baths is around 24,000 HUF, but this varies from venue to venue and what kind of tastes you have. You can join the masses in the more public of baths or decide to surround yourself in opulence and art nouveau architecture.
Definitively a must do in Budapest.

PDA

So what is PDA? And why would it be a big deal in Budapest? Well it’s a short term for public displays of affection and you will find it is usually the younger generation guilty of showing their love in the most public of venues. The older generations tend to frown on showing too many emotions especially anger and its significance really can be dated back to the communist rules and public guidelines put in place after Hungary fell to the Soviets after World War 2.
Communist rule was quite harsh on any displays of affection on public. Holding hands if you were not married was not allowed and definitely no touching or kissing in the public eye. Also if you had a girlfriend/boyfriend you were not allowed to be at their place of residence after certain hours and once again no staying over for the night. Punishments were potentially quite severe and with Budapest being known for its secret police who enforced the rules and handed out the punishments, many people lived in fear and followed the rules.
Today in Budapest you will see the youth with tattoos, piercings and men with long hair, once again all forms of self-expression which were forbidden during communist rule, but these kids never had that experience and their rebellion is what some might say even over compensating their freedom of self-expression.
In any case, if you don’t mind people kissing, women topless in the parks in summer and very affectionate couples on the buses and public transport, then you won’t have a problem in the world visiting this unique stylish city.

Dive Bars

We all love a good bar and a nice cocktail! Many of us probably have our favourite haunt that we have been patronizing for years and yes you can find these bars in Budapest too, but through the years it became famous for its ‘Dive Bars’
So what is a Dive Bar you ask? Well imagine music and expression is forbidden, but you’re a rebel and need to stay true to yourself. Going to bar in the open streets is not an option, so you and your friends find an abandoned building. All of a sudden you scrounge some furniture up and more and more people being to come along. Each time more and more items are added and finally you have a DJ with music and a rocking night scene in a place that no one would think to look for you. This is what a Dive Bar was in Budapest, which became popular during communist rule and many bars today are still modelled on this idea.
They were easily set up venues which what people could find or afford to bring and also easily abandoned and set up somewhere else when the police caught wind of what was happening.
A favourite bar to visit is Szimpla Kert bar found in Jewish Quarter– Its very much in the spirit of a dive bar and a wonderful night out with friends and a great place to make new friends.

The Magyar Tribes

There have been some regions in the world which have long acted as gigantic gateways for tribes and cultures for centuries. Great migrations of tribal hordes took place through them and so passed the cultures through these gates. An example of of such a passage resounding through the history is carpathian basin. From pre-historic cultures like Dacians, Scythians, Huns and Avars set foot in this gateway leaving their marks on land and people. Then came a people from Urals which gave this region an identity still echoing. Magyars tribes came and settled in this region whose ultimate unity gave rise to medieval Hungary (895).

The Turkish Empire want in

Some battles did not just decide the fate of the armies but fate of the nations too. Mohacs (29 August 1526) was one such battle, which sealed the fate of medieval Hungary. With it, eastern and central Hungary came under Turkish administrative and cultural influence. Turkish rule over Hungary can be marked by repetitive wars which caused devastation to the population centers of Hungary, but the Turks left other marks of their rule too, adding more to the cultural blend of Hungary. Among these are magnificent Baths of Buda, Mosque of Pasha Qasim in Pécs, minarets in Eger and Érd and Gül Baba tomb in Budapest.

Habsburgs Rule

Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) ended the War of the Holy League transferring almost all of ottoman Hungary to the Habsburgs. Hungarian aristocracy, however, continued efforts to resume Hungary’s special status within Habsburg domains thereby strengthening a sense of nationalism among Hungarian people. Repetitive efforts continued to be made by Habsburgs to transform their empire from loose monarchy to a centralized unitary state. But it resulted into two major rebellions by the Hungarians, Rákóczi’s War of Independence (1703–11) and Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Ultimately a compromise of dual crowns (1867) achieved between Austria and Hungary where later gained much autonomy.

Hungary’s role in WWI

At the start of WW1, Austria-Hungary’s armies were mainly comprised of Germans and Hungarians.The Hungarians, still under Habsburg rule, were forced to fight at many fronts alongside the Austrians against the Russians (Battle of Limanowa and Przemysl) and Italians (Battles of the Isonzo) during the war. Hungarian losses were great and nothing was being gained. While at home, Hungary demanded to Vienna that parts of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and later Romania be given as their shares of war. The opposition leader in Buda, Mihály Károlyi, on the other hand, was secretly negotiating with Allies for independent Hungary. Near the end of war though, Károlyi was allowed to make independent Hungarian government in Buda.

Forced to fight in WW2

Hungarians were forced into WW2 like so many others, and inclined towards Axis powers in WW2 to regain its regions removed by Allies after WW1 and to pacify their losses due to Great Depression. At the brink of WW2, it joined the Nazis under great pressure of Germany and fought in Yugoslavia and Russia alongside the Nazi army. The Country, after great loses, called forarmistice negotiations with the Allies. Knowing this, Hitler’s German Forces invaded and occupied Hungary in 1944. Upon Soviet threatening, Regent Miklós Horthy signed an armistice with USSR, but Regent was deposed by German backed Fascist Ferenc Szálasi before it could go into effect. Defeat of combined German and Hungarian forces (1945) shifted Hungary to Russian hands, ultimately becoming People’s Republic of Hungary in 1949 and joining USSR under communist rule.

Under Communist Rule

In 1945 elections, conducted after fascist’s end, Independent Smallholders Party won 57% votes whereas Hungarian Communist Party succeeded in getting only 7%. However the soviet commander Marshal Kliment Voroshilov refused a public government and instead formed a coalition government with communists in some key posts. Meanwhile communist’s controlled interior ministry continued manipulating or removing other parties leaders one by one. By 1947, communists had become largest party gaining majority in famous “blue-ballot” elections. Communists gave an ultimatum for all others to merge with them or go in exile, thereby eventually ending Republic of Hungary and starting People’s Republic of Hungary.

The House of Terror

House of terror can be regarded as a Real Time Museum as it doesn’t just been arranged to hold memorials related to fascist and communist regimes, but it in itself has been a center of their crimes. When the communists moved to Budapest, they replaced Nazi secret headquarters with their own secret police named Államvédelmi Hatóság or ÁVH (Hungarian version of KGB) in the same building where museum is today. Hundreds and thousands were tortured in the building. Its basement acted as a prison for communist’s declared enemies of the states. Executions were a routine task carried out in the building.

The New Capital

Hungary has taken turbulent shifts since the fall of communism (1989), but Hungary is placed among the fastest countries to overthrow communist policies. It witnessed its first free elections in 1990 resembling western style democracy system. The 1990 elections, however saw coming back of many communists’ members, but the country continued to shift towards west by gaining membership of NATO (1999) and EU (1st May 2004). Financial situation of the country though beleaguered in 2000s due to some controversial policies and much of it was caused by the 2008 recession too. Nevertheless, there are still much brighter prospects if policies are set in the right direction.

Things to See & Do

The Fresh Food Markets

Vajdahunyad Castle

Szechenyi Baths

Fisherman’s Bastion

Laybrinth of Buda Castle

The Citadel

Shoes on the Danube & Parliament House

Deak Square

Hero’s Square

House of Terror

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